This will be the first time that a Philippine agriculture secretary is nominated to chair UN-FAO’s highest policy-making body.

This year’s conference will review the State of Food and Agriculture, to be conducted in parallel sessions with discussions on global and regional policy and regulatory matters arising from various regional reports. It will likewise tackle the progress of the implementation of the United Nations Decade of Action on Nutrition and Follow-up actions to the Second International Conference on Nutrition, among others.

The FAO conference, which convenes every two years, is the ministerial-level body of the UN-FAO. It focuses on ensuring coherence in global policy issues and regulatory frameworks, acting normally on the recommendations of the FAO Technical Committees and Regional Conferences and, where appropriate, the FAO Council. Specifically, the Conference approved the organization’s priorities, strategy and budget, having considered the recommendations of the Council.

FAO has 194 member-nations plus one member organization, the European Union, and two associate members, The Faroe Islands and Tokelau.

Meanwhile, Piñol will meet with Filipino community leaders in Italy, where he is expected to promote local products to help boost Philippine agri-fishery exports to Italy. To date, Italy hosts the largest population of overseas Filipino workers in Western Europe and ranks as an important market for Philippine agri-fisheries products.

Piñol will also visit a fruit and vegetable farm being managed by a Filipino entrepreneur, and a food marketing and promotion event in the EATALY food hall in Rome.

In line with his efforts to help mechanize the farm sector, Secretary Piñol will make a stop-over at CREA-ING, an Italian research institute engaged in research and development of farm machineries. He will also hold a roundtable meeting with Italian businessmen and investors. (DA press release)